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Friday, August 8, 2014

Gearing up for Med School Orientation!

My first week of medical school!

Orientation officially starts on Monday, but to me it feels
like it started this week. Yesterday, I finally received my schedule for the
first term, and to say it’s intense is an understatement. The above pic is just
from the first week alone! I guess the good news is that I get to do a back
dissection on the first day of class :-)

Completing the Orientation Checklist!

In addition to receiving my schedule, I also just finished a
few “housekeeping” items that need to be completed before orientation on
Monday. This included part 1 of Basic Life Support training which just took me
over an hour and a half to complete, but I passed! The other parts of the BLS
training will be completed on Monday, and then I will be CPR-certified. I also
had to complete an AACOM entrance survey, a “Learning and Study Strategies
Inventory”, and a “VARK” learning style questionnaire. From these I learned I
have a very strong read/write preference, and I also need to find ways to improve
my self-testing and skills in selecting main ideas. I also took a trip to
campus today to have my final TB reading done since I previously had it done
way earlier than what was required for matriculating students.

The good part of getting ready for orientation was that I
was assigned my “Big” which is a second-year student who helps guide and mentor
a first-year student. We met up for lunch today, and I got some really good
advice and files for my external hard drive. It’s nice to have someone to talk
to who actually went through what I am about to experience in the next year. It
definitely helps to ease some of the anxiety, and right now I’m feeling just
about as ready as I’ll ever be for the start of my medical career. This weekend
will also be my last as a non-student for the next few years, so now that
everything is done, I will be thoroughly enjoying it. When my daughter got out
of school today, we went straight to the movies to see the new TMNT movie, and
it was awesome! So far this weekend is off to a great start, and with some
great evening events planned next week for orientation, I plan on keeping up the
fun until the very last minute. Stay tuned!